Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company From the Inside Out by Sean Griffin

surrealism.
    The criticism that Bambi is too realistic does not recognize that the animation creates an illusion of realism, thus allowing Disney and his animators to naturalize (possibly more than ever before) messages about sexuality and the body. Just as in The Flying Mouse, a cycle of time 30
    M I C K E Y ’ S M O N A S T E RY
    is used to make the lessons of the film’s narrative seem logical and inevitable. Bambi is born in the spring, reaches his lowest emotional and physical point during the barren winter months and emerges tri-umphant in the following spring. During this period, the film promotes a patriarchal order (Bambi is “the young Prince” who will eventually take over his father’s position as “King of the Forest” and is forced to shed his dependence on his mother when she is killed halfway through the film) and asserts that all animal species engage in bourgeois heterosexual courtship that leads to a serene family life for all. Possibly more effectively than anything that the studio had previously done, Bambi used the “illusion of life” style to tell a moral-driven narrative that essentializes messages about sexuality and the body by animating a story told “in nature.”
    DISNEY AT WAR: FEDERALLY SPONSORED
    EDUCATION (1942–1949)
    In the 1940s, the studio came into greater contact with the United States government and armed forces. These ties started for the studio another evolution in representing sexuality and the body, a change stressing more than ever before the pedagogical nature of these representations by trying to teach servicemen (and others) federal guidelines on hygiene and body maintenance. While still working to provide entertainment, these films first and foremost were produced and screened as
    “educational” films, attempting to specifically regulate, prohibit and generate an approved discourse of proper sexual conduct and control of the body. Although initially speaking to the military services, Disney’s move into educational films soon spread to ordinary citizens, both in the United States and beyond.
    The government was able to influence Disney’s output so greatly because, as scholars agree, Disney’s ties to the federal government during World War II saved the studio from bankruptcy.86 It might seem surprising to find that, so quickly after the huge success of Snow White , the studio was on the brink of collapse. The studio poured the profits from its first feature into its next two, Pinocchio and Fantasia.
    Neither came close to matching Snow White ’s box-office. With the books in the red, the studio was also crippled by animators striking for union representation. Due to the long and (at times) ugly strike, M I C K E Y ’ S M O N A S T E RY
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    production at the studio on Bambi was delayed for months, and the studio was forced to shut down completely for a while. According to Douglas Gomery, “Through 1941 and 1942 the Disney company lost a total of one million dollars.”87
    In early 1941, Disney held a meeting with various representatives from industry and the United States and Canadian governments to discuss the possible use of animation in education and propaganda. Disney had already made a training film called Four Methods of Flush Riveting (1940) for Lockheed and presented this as an example of how films could help train engineers and military personnel. Canada, already at war, contracted Disney to make both instructional films and a series of four short trailers using various Disney characters (the Three Pigs, the Seven Dwarves, Donald Duck, etc.) to promote the sale of Canadian war bonds.88
    The United States government was not far behind Canada in seeking out Disney’s help. Even before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Disney was negotiating with the government to make educational films for the armed forces.89 After December 7, 1941, the armed forces made their presence felt at the studio in a number of palpable ways. Beyond the dozens of military